A Second Opinon

Floor Speech

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Mr. BARRASSO. Madam President, I come to the floor as someone who has practiced medicine in Wyoming, taking care of families all across the Cowboy State for almost one-quarter of a century. I come as a doctor giving a second opinion, as I have done week after week about this broken health care law that people all around the country are now very concerned about and the impact it is going to have on their own personal lives.

We started the whole discussion and debate about health care that the American people knew what they wanted: They wanted the care they need, from a doctor they want, at a cost they can afford. What we have gotten is something that does not provide that at all.

I saw today in the Washington Post, under the headline "Budget Showdown,'' comments about the President's speech yesterday to the Nation. He did talk about Medicare and did talk about Medicaid. I believe that speech was very short, inadequate on the details.

It was interesting to see what the Washington Post said about Medicaid. It said:
..... a senior administration official, speaking to reporters on the condition of anonymity, said that ..... ``the details have not been worked out.''

So we have an anonymous source, working in the White House, talking to reporters, admitting that the details have not been worked out.

Yesterday, people heard the President's speech on spending, but it seemed to be higher on political attacks than it was on substantive speech--the things we need to be seriously discussing and debating in this country about a huge debt problem with which we are living. The President did mention one bit of substance, though, that should concern the American people. He said:

We will slow the growth of Medicare costs by strengthening an independent commission of doctors, nurses, medical experts, and consumers who will look at all the evidence and recommend the best ways to reduce unnecessary spending while protecting access to the services seniors need.

What this is is a Washington commission--a commission created in the health law that many know as IPAB. It may sound harmless. It stands for the Independent Payment Advisory Board. Americans, I believe, need to know more about the details as to how this will actually work.

Many Americans may not remember that the health care law created this unelectable, unaccountable board of Washington bureaucrats who will be appointed by the President, and the sole purpose is to cut Medicare spending based on arbitrary budget targets. These are cuts above and beyond the $500 billion that was taken from a nearly bankrupt Medicare Program, not to save Medicare for our seniors but to create a whole new government entitlement program for someone else. This board empowers 15 unelected Washington bureaucrats to make these Medicare cuts, all without full transparency and accountability to America's seniors and to elected officials.

So, once again, this board proves that the President and the Democrats in Congress who voted for the health care law simply didn't have the political courage to make the tough spending decisions themselves. Instead, they took the easy road. They pulled the classic Washington maneuver--to create a board and punt the decisions to them.

Congress gave this board its authority to manage Medicare spending. I didn't vote for it. Members of my side of the aisle didn't vote for it. But this is part of the health care law that was crammed down the throats of the American people. Congress abdicated its responsibility to explain to the American people specific payment changes necessary to keep Medicare solvent.

Let's take a look at what happens when this board actually makes a recommendation. The recommendation becomes law. The recommendation becomes law. How can we prevent that from becoming law? The recommendation will become law unless the House and the Senate each adopt--not by simple majority--each adopt by a three-fifths majority a resolution to block them. That is not enough. First, three-fifths of the House, then three-fifths of the Senate, resolutions to block what this board is recommending. Then the House and Senate have to pass legislation to achieve equivalent savings of what this board claims to be saving by the care they deny.

This is an incredible concentration of power that should belong in Congress to a board of unelected--unelected--individuals who are appointed by the President.

Is there concern about this? In the House of Representatives, there is. There has been a repeal provision created that would repeal this board, and I will tell my colleagues it is a bipartisanly cosponsored attempt to repeal this provision.

So that is what we are looking at now. Why? Because the President and the Democrats refused to take a leadership role and chose to punt this down the road. They simply threw up their hands and said let someone else do it. This is not health reform that is good for patients, for the providers, the doctors and nurses who take care of those patients, or for the taxpayers.

Fortunately, Senator Cornyn of Texas has introduced the Health Care Bureaucrats Elimination Act. This bill would repeal this board in order to ensure that the doctor-patient relationship that is important to quality health care for all Americans is maintained. I am happy to cosponsor that with Senator Cornyn. We will continue to fight to repeal and replace this very broken health care law.

Thank you, Madam President. I yield the floor.

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